Anish Kapoor: Blood
5 May – 1 July 2000

Anish Kapoor is one of the most influential sculptors of his generation. Born in
Bombay, he has lived and worked in London since the early 70s. His work has been
exhibited worldwide and is held in numerous private and public collections, including
the Tate Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Reina Sofia in Madrid
and Stedlijk Museum in Amsterdam.

Lisson Gallery will present an exhibition of new work by Anish Kapoor on May 4th. It
will be the first exhibition of new works to be seen in London since his highly acclaimed
show at the Hayward Gallery in 1998.

For his latest exhibition, Kapoor has adopted an experimental approach as he explores
new visual languages within his work. Through the use of elemental materials, including
water and air, Kapoor continues his investigations into the material and immaterial,
weight and weightlessness, surface and space, the ocular and the aural, as he subtly
balances the literal and the illusory to animate the senses.

Kapoor sees his work as being engaged with deep-rooted metaphysical polarities;
presence and absence, being and non-being, place and non-place and the solid and the
intangible. Throughout the exhibition Kapoor’s fascination with darkness and light
becomes apparent in his sculptures; the translucent quality of the resin works, the
absorbent nature of pigment, the radiant glow of alabaster and the fluid reflections of
stainless steel and water. Through this interplay between form and light, Kapoor aspires
to evoke sublime experiences, which address primal physical and psychological states.

Kapoor recently created ‘Tarantantara’, a major site specific work at the Baltic Centre, a
new venue for contemporary art in Gateshead. For this temporary installation the artist
made a semi transparent, deep red membrane fabricated in PVC and stretched it over
the 1000 square metre interior of the gutted building with spectacular results.

Kapoor is currently working on ‘Parabolic Waters’, a large scale water based work for an
area outside the Millennium Dome. He is also working on a major commission for the
city of Chicago, as well as a large public commission for Nottingham Playhouse.

Anish Kapoor won the Premio 2000 in 1990 when he represented the British Pavilion
at the XLIV Venice Biennial. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 1991 and in 1992
Kapoor contributed to Documenta IX with the Building Decent into Limbo. In the same
year Expo Seville commissioned a large architectural work entitled Building for a Void.
After his exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in 1998 and his ambitious exhibition

at CAPC Bordeaux, the South Bank Show presented the first full-length
television profile of Anish Kapoor in February 1999.